It's really happening!
We're moving in 7 short weeks (very very bittersweet!) to the family farm.
From now on I'll be blogging Mommy Grow It style over on the farm blog. I plan to post about what is going on at the farm as well as tips on urban homesteading and not-so-urban homesteading.
Go check out the website - comments welcome!
And literally - if you're in Northern Vermont, we'd love to have you come by the farm for a visit!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Current To do list
Decide on Turkey breeds and order
start seedlings as appropriate in Feb and prep the seedling trays for the rest
Order tubers
Find pigs
Get approximately 10 RI Whites (chicks) from person in Wrentham right before move
Firm up farm logo design
finish website
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
dreaming of seeds
The blog has laid dormant but is having an early spring awakening! We're spending hours looking through various seed catalogs to decide on vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers.
I think the majority of seeds we'll get from Fedco with Johnny's and Seed Savers filling in any gaps. Hoping to get the order in by early next week - maybe even by this weekend!
What seed supplier do you use? Any "must have" plants tolerant up (or should I say "down"? Guess it depends if you're looking at a map or thinking of temperature) to zone 4 or even 3?
ps still up in the air where we will live exactly. I presume we'll pull up in the spring and be told where to rest our head that night ;)
I think the majority of seeds we'll get from Fedco with Johnny's and Seed Savers filling in any gaps. Hoping to get the order in by early next week - maybe even by this weekend!
What seed supplier do you use? Any "must have" plants tolerant up (or should I say "down"? Guess it depends if you're looking at a map or thinking of temperature) to zone 4 or even 3?
ps still up in the air where we will live exactly. I presume we'll pull up in the spring and be told where to rest our head that night ;)
a book tower
We have collected a number of farming related books and more are always coming. We're a little addicted!
Here's a review roundup of the ones we have. This is a small portion of the books we've read - most we get from the library. If we love then we buy.
The first four books are bee related. They were given to us from Grampy Gillis's collection and I admit, I have not yet read these. Here's why: we're moving in two months (eek!) and right now we have an excellent interlibrary state-wide loan system at our disposal.
When we move to Vermont, I hear, the interlibrary loan situation is less than excellent. So I'm frantically reading every book I can get my hands on in the RI system. That reminds me, who requested The Profitable Hobby Farm? Just asking. When you borrow books from the library you get them for three weeks. This is usually more than sufficient. Except ... when you are also borrowing seven other books, transforming two rooms in your house-to-be, getting seeds started, going to conferences... and if someone has requested the book you're borrowing you can not renew it - that's fair, but means I need to get that book READ. It's due March 3.
Carrots Love Tomatoes - This is a go-to book for us. We use it mostly as a reference but I often find myself sucked in because ... well it's interesting what plants like to be near each other and equally interesting is the plants not to plant together. Here's a great online list of companion plants. (I LOVE Mother Earth News!)
Square Foot Gardening - This is another book I've dabbled in but haven't read from start to finish. My good friend Kate recommended this book last year after she discovered it and started square foot gardening. I know another friend has also does square foot gardening with great success. I don't know if this is practical on a larger scale - mostly because as far as I can tell, it seems like the built boxes are necessary? This is very costly and I'm assuming the wood boxes wouldn't last long with the abuse it would have to put up with in the garden. Note: this is all said without reading the book in full.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
blue egg : cracked
We got our first blue egg!!!
Ark Boy found it...
... and cracked it :(
That wouldn't have been so bad except he's so well practiced in the ways of green (like insisting that when he pees in any toilet - even public ones - that we don't flush!) that he promptly brought the egg to the compost.
Ren Man was sad. This cracked egg was still edible.
Oh well.
More have since come.
We think only one of the aracauna's are laying so far.
We started keeping track of how many eggs we were getting since the middle of October.
We're up to 50.
And it hasn't been too many!
We gave 1/2 a dozen to a neighbor who we've only given one 1/2 dozen to before.
We definitely haven't given away as many as we'd hoped - not for lack of wanting, for lack of production.
And now Ren Man wants a dozen and some bourbon to do some aged eggnog for a holiday party...
Ark Boy found it...
... and cracked it :(
That wouldn't have been so bad except he's so well practiced in the ways of green (like insisting that when he pees in any toilet - even public ones - that we don't flush!) that he promptly brought the egg to the compost.
Ren Man was sad. This cracked egg was still edible.
Oh well.
More have since come.
We think only one of the aracauna's are laying so far.
We started keeping track of how many eggs we were getting since the middle of October.
We're up to 50.
And it hasn't been too many!
We gave 1/2 a dozen to a neighbor who we've only given one 1/2 dozen to before.
We definitely haven't given away as many as we'd hoped - not for lack of wanting, for lack of production.
And now Ren Man wants a dozen and some bourbon to do some aged eggnog for a holiday party...
Red Cabbage
How beautiful is this?
Only two more CSA pickups this year. This cabbage we got a couple of weeks ago. I cut into it and chose to cook it only really because I wanted to see the inside! I made cabbage soup and it wasn't bad.
Please please please! What other delicious cabbage recipes are there?!? Tell me!
Only two more CSA pickups this year. This cabbage we got a couple of weeks ago. I cut into it and chose to cook it only really because I wanted to see the inside! I made cabbage soup and it wasn't bad.
Please please please! What other delicious cabbage recipes are there?!? Tell me!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
"baby" chickens
I recently posted on facebook that our baby chickens have started laying (and followed that up with pictures).
Someone recently said: "wow! I saw your fb status - I didn't know baby chickens lay eggs!"
Hmmm.... well, baby chickens don't lay eggs - our baby chickens have started laying ... meaning the youngest addtions to our flock.
No, they aren't chicks any more.
They've been busy growing all summer.
We brought them in to Ark Boy's preschool class when they were new-ish last spring and then we recently brought 2 back in to show the class how much they've grown. I didn't realize how big they had become until then.
This is one of the original birds - Dixie - and the top of the pecking order.
The other original bird, Lulu - she's our lazy layer and I think we should cull her but surprisingly Ren Man is not on board with culling her.
And the not-so-baby babies:
This is Dippy or O'Rien - we have two easter eggers that are identical so we can't tell them apart... we also didn't try very hard to make sure we distinguished them from chicks. They looked like chipmunks when they were chicks :)
And there's all four "babies" with Luna in the front, Soleil behind her, and the Dippy/O'Rien, and furthest back another Dippy/O'Rien.
Having chickens is the best! I can't wait to have a huge flock next year!
In the meantime Ren Man suspects Luna was the small egg layer and she is now molting so the egg production will slow down for the winter. I hear though that Orpingtons (Soleil) lay just as frequently in winter. We'll see...
Someone recently said: "wow! I saw your fb status - I didn't know baby chickens lay eggs!"
Hmmm.... well, baby chickens don't lay eggs - our baby chickens have started laying ... meaning the youngest addtions to our flock.
No, they aren't chicks any more.
They've been busy growing all summer.
We brought them in to Ark Boy's preschool class when they were new-ish last spring and then we recently brought 2 back in to show the class how much they've grown. I didn't realize how big they had become until then.
This is one of the original birds - Dixie - and the top of the pecking order.
The other original bird, Lulu - she's our lazy layer and I think we should cull her but surprisingly Ren Man is not on board with culling her.
And the not-so-baby babies:
This is Dippy or O'Rien - we have two easter eggers that are identical so we can't tell them apart... we also didn't try very hard to make sure we distinguished them from chicks. They looked like chipmunks when they were chicks :)
And there's all four "babies" with Luna in the front, Soleil behind her, and the Dippy/O'Rien, and furthest back another Dippy/O'Rien.
Having chickens is the best! I can't wait to have a huge flock next year!
In the meantime Ren Man suspects Luna was the small egg layer and she is now molting so the egg production will slow down for the winter. I hear though that Orpingtons (Soleil) lay just as frequently in winter. We'll see...
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